You Loved Me Once
by petrovasfire
Summary: Having taken the cure, Elena is human and once again in love with Stefan. Damon, heartbroken, prepares to leave Mystic Falls, but not before finding out a shocking secret that Stefan has kept from him. Meanwhile, Katherine returns with a goal that isn't as inexplicably evil as Elena would like to believe. Damon/Elena & Stefan/Katherine.
1. Wedding

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters, though I sure as hell wish I did.**

**A/N:** **Both Delena _and_ Steferine will be featured in this story. Jeremy doesn't die in this story, so Elena never turned off her humanity. This is my own take on what happens after Elena takes the cure. AU-ish but not really.**

* * *

Staring at her own reflection in the mirror, Elena Gilbert breathed in deeply and closed her eyes. _You can do this_, she thought. _Don't be a coward._ When she opened her eyes again, she saw another figure behind hers in the mirror. She gasped and turned around to see a familiar face; a face she hadn't seen in a while. Not since she'd taken the cure and went right back to Stefan. She wasn't sure how she felt about seeing him. Not here. Not _now_.

"Damon."

"Getting cold feet yet?" he said, smiling. "Thinking about ditching this boring party and hitting the road with me?"

"You know it's not just any party. It's my wedding."

A frown replaced the smile on Damon's face.

"No, I didn't know it was your wedding, Elena. What should have been my first clue? Your miserable excuse of a wedding dress, or the fact that you're sweating so much you're completely soaked?"

Elena flinched at his words, but she could see the hurt behind the anger. She'd seen it so many times before, but her heart still sank every time. She looked at him sadly and reached for his face.

"Damon…"

He swatted her hand away. "Oh, save me the pity lecture, Elena. I get it. You want the whole human experience, and I can't give you that. It's the one thing you have in common with him, and I'm happy for you. Really, I am."

"You know that I cared about you. I still do–"

"But you love Stefan," Damon finished it for her, "it's always going to be Stefan. I know, Elena. I've heard that speech so many times already my ears are getting sore."

He turned away from her and dragged his feet towards the window. He knew it was a mistake coming here. What did he think was going to happen? She was going to see he was a complete wreck and what, she was supposed to feel sorry for him? Leave Stefan for him? This wasn't _Runaway Bride_. Damon knew he acted impulsively most of the time, but he never thought he would go as far as crash a wedding for a girl he'd spent so long fighting with his brother over. Now he knew.

He mentally kicked himself for ever considering it in the first place. He knew he couldn't blame her for going back to Stefan. It wasn't her fault. Ironically, however, that was the worst part.

"Damon," Elena called out. "Hey!"

He looked back at her, her mother's elegant wedding dress perfectly complementing her figure. He never got the girl, and now he was never going to. His brows furrowed as he savoured every feature of her, as though he were looking at her for the last time. He let out a deep sigh.

"You look beautiful, Elena. You know I could never think otherwise. He better not let you go, or I'll kill him for it. I won't hesitate this time."

And then he was gone so quickly Elena didn't even have time to catch her breath.

A sudden knock on the door made her jump.

"Come in," she said, her voice wavering.

Caroline peeked through the door. "You okay?"

"You heard that, huh?" Elena sighed.

"I couldn't help it. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I don't want to think about it." Elena glanced at her reflection once more.

Caroline beamed at her best friend. "You look spectacular, by the way. Are you ready?"

Elena nodded and walked out the door of her dressing room after Caroline as every thought of Damon was quickly being replaced with new ones of her future husband waiting for her at the end of the aisle through the doors of the church.

* * *

"My legs are getting tired," Jeremy whispered to Stefan. He had agreed to fill in as best man for Stefan when Damon decided he wasn't cut out to stay in Mystic Falls any longer and fled town.

"Just a little longer," Stefan laughed, "she's coming in any mom–"

He was interrupted mid-sentence as the large doors at the end of the room opened. Everyone in the church stood to look at Elena. The fabric of her dress flowed down like an endless river, trailing behind her smoothly as she made her way slowly towards Stefan. Stefan smiled at his future wife, unable to avert his gaze. She looked so beautiful, and for a moment it was as though every feature he ever loved about her was magnified. He was so fixated on her that he didn't realise she had already walked all the way down the aisle and was now in front of him. She clasped his hands firmly to snap him out of his trance.

"Mr. Salvatore?"

Stefan cleared his throat and looked at the preacher as though noticing him for the first time. "Yes?"

"Shall we begin?"

They spoke their vows and their "I-do"s, and kissed a brief but passionate kiss. He couldn't care less about anything except that he was hers and she was his, and this was a moment the both of them would never forget for the rest of their lives.

"I love you," Stefan whispered, loud enough for Elena to hear but soft enough to be unheard by anyone else.

"I love you, too," she replied.

He pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear and caressed her face, leaning in for another kiss when suddenly, the doors of the church burst open.

"STOP!"

Each face in the crowd turned to see a distraught young woman in a wedding dress similar to the one the bride was wearing. In fact, the young woman herself was a spitting image of the bride.

"_Elena?_" Stefan looked at her, the horrified expression on his face matching everyone else's in the room. He turned briskly to look at the woman next to him.

"No. No, no, no, no. It can't be."

Immediately, he jerked his hand away from her grasp in disgust.

"Don't you think we had such a beautiful wedding, Stefan? Too bad your nutcase of an ex had to ruin everything."

A sly smile spread across her face as she looked up at him. He reached for her throat so swiftly she was in mid-air within seconds.

"_Katherine,_" he spat.


	2. Doppelgänger

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters, because if I did I would be having tea with Julie Plec instead of writing fanfic.**

* * *

"That's no way to treat your new wife, Stefan," Katherine said, pouting.

"You are _not_ my wife!" Stefan snarled through his teeth. "You're nothing to me."

He hurled her across the room. Katherine plowed head-first into the wall, creating a large dent. Gasps and shrieks were heard all across the room, but Stefan ignored them and made his way towards Elena.

Katherine got up in a flash and went straight for the preacher, who had stood frozen on the podium amidst the events unfolding before him. Dark veins stretched down beneath Katherine's bloodshot eyes and a pair of fangs sprouted from her mouth. The preacher howled in horror and begged for help, but not a soul dared to approach the vampire.

"One more step and he dies. It goes the same for everyone else in the room."

Stefan stopped in his tracks and turned around. The preacher cried for mercy but Katherine didn't loosen her grip. She stared Elena down. Then she looked at Stefan, and then back at Elena. She saw the faces of the crowd, who were too terrified to move, shaken from what they had just witnessed. She was too far gone. She wasn't going to back down.

"Katherine," said Stefan slowly, as though Katherine were a beast that had to be tamed, though clearly there was no difference. "Don't do this. Please."

Katherine peered at him, searching his eyes for sincerity. There was genuine worry in his voice as he pleaded for her to stop. Eventually, she let the preacher go. Her fangs disappeared. She scowled at Elena, who was rubbing her bruises from when she was attacked earlier. Elena's head ached and her feet throbbed. She wobbled where she stood, but she was not determined to give in to the pain, not where Stefan was concerned.

Stefan dropped his hands to his waist. He beckoned with his fingers for Elena to come forward and when Katherine didn't budge, he quickly swooped her up into his arms and pulled her into an embrace.

"Son of a bitch," Katherine cried, tearing down the podium and seizing hold of Dr. Meredith Fell in the front row, this time not hesitating to sink her teeth into her neck. Dr. Fell screamed and wriggled out of her seat (at least she tried to, but failed). Everyone else in the room proceeded to jump out of theirs and run towards the church exit.

"NO!"

Stefan shoved Katherine away from Dr. Fell, who had already passed out on the floor. As Stefan hastened to feed her his blood, Katherine swiftly picked herself up from the floor and produced a syringe from whatever pockets her wedding dress miraculously had.

Elena was only able to mutter a, "Stefan, look out!" before Katherine drove the syringe, which was loaded with vervain, deep into his back, causing him to fall flat onto the floor, unconscious. Then, as if nothing had happened, Katherine threw him over her shoulder and vanished.

Overwhelmed by the pain, both physical and emotional, Elena collapsed. At that moment, Caroline stumbled into the church, which was now starting to empty as the crowd ran past her out the exit. Her bridesmaid dress was stained with blood from when Katherine lunged at her.

"What the hell is going on?!"

"K-Katherine," mumbled Elena, feeling the walls closing in. She remembered crashing into a glass table when Katherine attacked her, but she hadn't realised there was a wound until she felt a sharp pain in the back of her left leg, where she found a deep gash that spread from the knee down to her ankle.

"You n-need to compel them, Caroline," Elena moaned. "M-make them forget."

Caroline was obviously too distracted by the swarm of people who were already halfway out of the church to smell Elena's blood dripping from the gash.

"I'm on it. That bitch is so going to pay for what she did to me. I spent hours getting ready for this wedding and she thinks she can just get away with destroying it? I'm going to give her hell."

Caroline ran out, chasing down each harried man and woman and calmly convinced them to believe that it was it a beautiful reception, nothing unusual happened and there was delicious cake with buttercream frosting.

Elena tore off part of the train of her wedding dress and wrapped it around her leg as a makeshift bandage. Then she crawled towards the front exit and stood up, wincing at the pain. She teetered on her heels and was about to keel over again when a pair of hands caught her from behind.

"I tried to follow them," Jeremy panted, "but I lost them. They're gone."

Elena didn't respond. Her eyelids were drooping and her heartbeat was weakening. She was losing a lot of blood.

"Elena?" Jeremy called out in alarm. "ELENA!"

The hospital was too far away from the church and she wouldn't make it before they even reached there. Without thinking twice, he picked her up and ran as fast as his Gilbert legs could carry him to the only place he could think of – the Salvatore boarding house, where he hoped Damon would be.


	3. Solace

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. Not even the lame ones. JK, there are no lame characters in The Vampire Diaries.**

* * *

Damon Salvatore opened the door to the boarding house to see Jeremy cradling an unconscious Elena in his arms. She was the last person he wanted to see, especially after their awkward goodbye earlier that evening. But looking at her in Jeremy's arms, all pale and helpless, his burning anger lessened, though it didn't extinguish completely.

"What's wrong with her?"

For the first time, Jeremy was so glad to see Damon he could actually hug him. "Thank god," he muttered, walking past Damon and into the living room. He set Elena down gently on the couch by the fireplace.

"Is she dead?"

"Why, are you hoping she is?"

Damon looked thoughtful. "Let me get back to you on that."

"Look, you've gotta help her," pleaded Jeremy. "It's her leg. She lost a lot of blood."

"What makes you think I want to?"

"Well, _do_ you want to?" Jeremy asked, annoyed.

Damon ignored his question. He bit into his own arm deep enough for just a trickle of blood to flow, and let Elena drink from it. After a while, her eyelids started to flutter very quickly and she drew in rapid breaths. Damon's blood stained her tongue with a taste that was so nasty, she pushed his arm away and spluttered.

Damon smirked. "Feels like just yesterday when you couldn't get enough of my blood, doesn't it?"

"How did I get here? Where… where's Stefan?"

"They got away," said Jeremy. Elena's forehead creased with worry.

"They?" Damon gave him a questioning look.

Jeremy nodded. "Katherine took him."

Damon got up from the couch and threw his arms in the air. "_Katherine?_ How the hell did she get in the picture?"

"She pretended to be Elena at the reception. Elena came into the church just after they… uh… you know."

Jeremy glanced at Elena, who shifted her head slightly so she wasn't facing either one of them. He drummed his fingers on his knees, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.

Eventually, he stood up. "I better go check on Caroline. See if she's finished compelling all of them yet. Call me if you need anything, okay?"

He waited for Elena to reply, but she said nothing. She didn't even turn to look at him. When he saw that Damon wasn't going to budge either, he let himself out the door.

Damon looked at Elena, who was in such a fragile state he didn't know what to do. He wasn't the type to whip up some hot chocolate and share sob stories with. Besides, he'd endured more than enough misery and hurt to know how she felt.

She hugged her knees tightly and buried her face in them. Her leg was fully healed but her dress was a bloody mess. Her mother's wedding dress, the one she and her aunt Jenna always talked about every time the topic of marriage came up. Her mother had always wanted to see her in it. But tonight, Elena was more than glad she couldn't. Her vampire boyfriend had just been abducted by his vampire ex-girlfriend, who was also her vampire ancestor. Being normal wasn't a criterion anymore, she'd learned to accept that, but couldn't she just have a day where everything turned out the way she wanted it to?

Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought about Stefan and how he had felt when he saw her (or at least, someone who looked exactly like her) walk down the aisle towards him, only to find out that it wasn't her at all.

"Hey," said Damon, his voice so soft even he wasn't sure if it came out at all. "How did Katherine even know about this?"

Elena finally looked up at him. Her makeup was running and her face was blotchy. "How does Katherine know about _anything_, Damon? She's everywhere. Remember the cure?"

A thin line appeared where Damon's sympathetic smile was just a few seconds ago. "I've been trying not to."

"She took him, Damon," sobbed Elena. "I have no idea where they are, or if she's going to do anything to him; god, if she hurts him I swear–"

"She won't."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Because despite what you – and anyone else thinks – she does care about him. She always has. It's pretty shocking to know that the evil slut has feelings, but she does."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"Depends on how you see it, Elena. But it definitely beats knowing your boyfriend's life is in danger, doesn't it?"

Elena said nothing. She was so sick of being the victim, always caught in the middle. She'd never once felt weak when she was a vampire. It was one of the few perks of being one. She quickly pushed that thought away. No, she was still a monster. There were no perks of being a vampire. She'd killed someone, and she liked it, and she hated herself for liking it and wanting to do it again. Bloodlust was something she could never get used to, and she never wanted to feel that way again.

All the thinking exhausted her and, despite having been healed by Damon's blood, she felt drained. She would convince Damon to help her find Stefan, but after the way she'd been treating him since she took the cure… Elena shuddered. She didn't give him the cold shoulder, specifically, but she pretty much made it clear that she loved Stefan and _only_ Stefan. Since then, things had been weird between the two of them no matter how hard they try to fix it. Elena did, after all, profess her love for Damon and got his hopes up only to be crushed again when she became human and immediately rekindled her relationship with Stefan.

"Need a ride home?"

Elena looked at Damon as though noticing his presence for the first time. "No, I think I'm going to spend the night here."

"Yeah, sure," said Damon nonchalantly, though anybody could see that he had hoped she would.

"In Stefan's room."

Damon's smile faltered a little, and then faded completely. "Oh yeah, got it. Misty-eyed sentiment and all that stuff. Gosh, so many memories on the bed…"

Elena ignored his comment. "Damon, I just… I want to apologise. About earlier."

Damon groaned. "Forget it, Elena. I'm over it."

"But–"

"Goodnight, Elena."

He disappeared upstairs into his room and slammed the door shut, leaving Elena quivering at the bottom of the stairs, feeling guilty, unwelcome and so, so alone.


	4. Cured

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters, okay? Quit reminding me about my sucky life.**

**A/N:** Sorry this chapter is so long, but this is a backstory on how Elena ended up back with Stefan after taking the cure as requested by Crimson-Kiss17. I spent all day writing this because I wanted to try and fit everything into one chapter. Hope it makes sense to you guys. Reviews would be very much appreciated so I know if you guys like/hate it! :-)

* * *

**_Three weeks ago_**

"It didn't work."

"We don't know that yet."

"She looks exactly the _same_."

"It's not about the way she looks, Damon. It's what's inside of her that changes."

"Got it, Gandhi."

"Shh, guys… she's waking up."

Elena's eyelids flickered open. Taking a deep breath, she realised she was in her bedroom. Did the cure work? Elena scratched her palm hard enough until it bled. She watched as the blood dripped but the wound didn't heal. Not immediately. Yes, she was human.

"Elena." Damon was sitting at the far end of her room. "How do you feel?"

"I'm fine." She grinned at the three vampires before her. "I feel… perfectly fine."

She heard Stefan sigh with relief. She jumped out of bed and walked towards the Salvatore brothers. Damon held his arms out to embrace her, but she wrapped her arms around Stefan instead.

"Hey," said Stefan softly, stroking her hair and planting a gentle kiss on her forehead. Damon stared at them, puzzled. His dropped his arms and then glanced at Caroline, who was watching the reuniting lovers – in delight, no doubt. She caught Damon's eye and shrugged helplessly.

That was it? Her feelings for him… all the times they'd spent together, the times she told him she loved him, it was all because of the sire bond? And now the cure had broken it, just like he'd wanted.

He shook his head, trying to digest everything. But what _was_ everything? This was it. The cure was a risk he willingly took to prove to Stefan that Elena's feelings for him were real, and now he lost her, probably for good. But this time he actually had the chance to taste it. _Love_. Elena's love that he'd thought was so pure and real but turned out to be fake.

His hands balled up into fists at his sides. Elena peeked at him from the crook of Stefan's neck with an expression that almost resembled guilt. Almost. He caught her eye and, shaking with anger, regret and worst of all, _betrayal,_ he turned around and walked out of the room before he could do anything that would ruin the happy couple's moment.

No, that couldn't be it. None of it made any sense. Not to him, at least. Stefan obviously didn't have a problem with accepting this human Elena.

_Elena._ He thought about their passionate kisses, frolicking in bed, whispering sweet nothings. What had meant everything to him now meant nothing to her.

* * *

"You look terrible."

"What else is new?" Damon shrugged at the bartender in Mystic Grill. "Bourbon."

He didn't bother using the glass the bartender provided and guzzled the bourbon down straight from the bottle. He turned to the empty stool next to him.

"I didn't get the girl, Ric," he mumbled, the alcohol slowly seeping through his brain cords. "Then again, I never get the girl, remember?"

"But _Stefan_," he continued, swaying on the stool, "Oh, Stefan. My baby bro. He gets them all. They _all_ want him. What do they see in the guy, anyway? Pure, sweet Stefan has to get boring at some point."

He slammed the bottle down on the counter. "Fucking sire bond."

The bartender approached him. "Another?"

Damon peered at the smiling bartender. "Why do you look so _happy?_ You work in a bar at the Grill. Your life must really suck if you can't think of a better job than serving drinks to people whose petty lives are just about as miserable as yours."

The bartender flinched at Damon's remark, but kept his cool. "Yours must _really_ suck too, or you wouldn't be in a bar full of miserable people, now would you?"

Glowering at him, Damon stood up and seized the collar of his shirt. "Let's get one thing clear. You don't get to talk to me like that."

The bartender kept up his bravado. "You don't scare me."

"Then not only are you miserable, but you're stupid too. Alley. Now," compelled Damon.

Damon grabbed his neck and led him out of the Grill, into the dark alley. He shoved him down on the ground and pressed his foot into his back.

"Apologise."

"No," the bartender spat.

"Don't push me, man. Just say you're sorry, and we can forget all about this."

"I said no!"

"Alright, have it your way." Damon dug his foot deeper into the bartender's back. He yelped in pain. Damon pulled him up and compelled him to shut up.

"What a shame." Damon clicked his tongue. "The world could use someone as brave and stupid like you. Oh well."

He sank his teeth into the bartender's neck, draining every last drop of blood he had.

"Damon!"

It was Elena, looking as worried and concerned as she always did. For a moment, Damon's temper disappeared. But then someone else walked up next to Elena. Someone who stood as a reminder that Damon never really did have Elena, and he never would.

"What's wrong with you?" Her voice was thick with alarm.

Stefan approached him and put his hand on his shoulder, but Damon shrugged it off. "Damon, you don't have to do this. I know you're upset–"

"Upset?" Damon laughed bitterly. "I don't know what you're talking about. If you mean this guy, well, _he_ chose to stand up to _me_, so…"

"Look, we can talk about this."

"Talk about what, Stefan? How Elena's finally broken the sire bond? We're all happy about that, aren't we? Now you both get to live your happy little lives together, the vampire and his pathetic human girl."

Stefan gritted his teeth. He was done playing nice guy. If Damon really couldn't accept the truth, then there was no point in buddying up to him anymore.

"I can't help what she feels. I'm not in control of it." There was something about the way he said it that was a little off. He wasn't quite meeting Damon's eyes. "She loves _me,_ Damon. So either you move on and accept that, or you might as well get the hell out of town."

Damon raised his eyebrows. "You have some nerve, brother. Asking me to leave and all."

"Oh no, I'm not asking."

Damon nodded, masking a thoughtful look. "Fine. You'll all be dead by the time I leave, anyway. You need me to survive."

He pushed Stefan out of the way and walked right past Elena.

* * *

_I can't help what she feels. I'm not in control of it._

Stefan's words rang in his head over and over.

_I'm not in control of it. I'm not in control of it. I'm not in control of it…_

"Really, Stefan?" Damon muttered to himself. He didn't like what he was thinking, and he didn't want to believe it. Not until someone whom he could guess was also involved could confirm it.

Damon reached for his cell phone and dialled Bonnie's number.

* * *

"Why'd you want to see me?"

"What did you do to the cure?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Bonnie. I know you tweaked the cure. Why doesn't Elena remember ever being in love with me?"

"She does."

"Ah, so you do know what I mean."

Bonnie shifted her gaze. "But she wasn't in love you. You know that. It was the sire bond."

"Screw the damn sire bond. A witch in New Orleans said that it only works if Elena had feelings for me _before_ she turned, so what the hell did you do, Bonnie?"

Bonnie's eyes widened. "You met a witch in New Orleans?"

"I've met witches in a lot of places, but that's not the point. Are you going to tell me what you did or not?"

"I didn't…" Bonnie trailed off, hoping he wouldn't see through her. "I didn't do _anything_, Damon."

Damon narrowed his eyes at her. "You're lying!"

"It was Stefan!" Bonnie blurted. Damon clenched his teeth. He figured that out by now, but he refused to believe that his brother would go so far just to separate him from Elena. Surely not pure-hearted Stefan.

"I know that already. What happened when Elena took the cure?"

"I didn't make her forget," said Bonnie, regretting every word that poured out of her mouth. "The cure made her think – no, it pretty much convinced her – that everything she felt for you was only because of the sire bond.

"She still cares about you, Damon. Just… not the way you were hoping she would."

"Stefan made you tweak the cure, and you willingly did it for him? I thought we were past the whole I'm-the-bad-guy phase! I'm on _your_ side. I don't have a lot of friends, Bonnie, and though I know we're nowhere near that stage yet, I thought we had each other's backs. Doesn't that mean anything to you at all?"

Bonnie didn't reply. Strange enough, she did feel bad for helping Stefan by using her magic to alter the cure, but…

"Oh, you have _got _ to be kidding me," said Damon suddenly, as if he had read Bonnie's mind. "He's got something on you, doesn't he? You wouldn't just singlehandedly alter the only thing a vampire like Elena was after. What did he threaten? Or should I say _who_ did he threaten?"

"That's none of your business," Bonnie said curtly.

"Wow," breathed Damon. "Stefan. Really? Is he on crack? What the hell is wrong with his brain? I mean, it's _Stefan_ we're talking about here."

"I don't know. I mean, I might actually consider you to be my current favourite Salvatore."

"That means so much to me, Bonnie," said Damon sarcastically, batting his eyelashes and pouting his lips.

Bonnie rolled her eyes.

"Alright, let's go," Damon said, standing up.

"Go? Go where?"

"We're gonna fix this. Come on, time to put your witchy gloves on."

"I can't."

"If you're worried about Stefan, or whoever that guy is anymore, don't. I can handle him."

"No, not that. I mean I can't fix it. She took the cure, that's it. There's no going back."

Damon's expression turned solemn for a moment, but then he grinned. "Ha, you almost got me there. Good one, Bonnie."

"I'm not kidding, Damon. There is no way to fix it."

"What do you mean, there is no way? There's always a way!"

"Not this time, Damon. I'm sorry, but as long as Elena is human, she's never going to know that what she felt for you was real."


	5. Games

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. Why Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec,****_ why?_**

* * *

The first thing Stefan realised when he opened his eyes was that it was cold. No, _freezing._ The crisp breeze bit at Stefan's cheeks. The next thing he noticed was that he was lying on top of a snow-capped mountain. The breeze carried tiny bits of snow up into the air so the sky became cloudy upon view. He could barely hear anything over the howling wind, too.

Stefan felt a disturbing sense of loneliness creep under his skin.

"Good, you're up! I was starting to worry."

_That voice. Elena…? No. Katherine._

He still felt somewhat weak from the vervain to sit upright. Katherine appeared next to him and began stroking his face gently. Stefan shoved her hand away.

"What happened? Where are we?"

"Switzerland. It's so… quiet up here, don't you think?" Katherine ignored Stefan's baffled expression. "Anyway, let's see. We got married, your crazy ex decided to crash the wedding at the last minute, I threatened to kill everyone, vervained you, and now we're on our honeymoon! Did I leave anything out?"

"We're _not_ married, Katherine," groaned Stefan, forcing himself to sit up. "Get over yourself."

"Oh, I think we are." Katherine wiggled her fingers in front of his face. The stone on the ring that Stefan slipped on her finger at the wedding glinted under the sunlight. He looked down at his own hand and noticed a slightly similar one on his ring finger.

Smiling, he took it off and threw it off the mountain as hard as he could.

"There," he said. "Problem solved. Want me to take care of yours, too?"

Katherine sighed, admiring the beauty of her ring. "No, I think I'm going to keep it. Every time I look at it, it reminds me of the time you told me you loved me."

"Well, I did think you were someone else, so that means you know I didn't mean it at all. Guess you'll be reminded of that too, huh?"

Katherine made a face. She took her ring off and threw it in the opposite direction from where Stefan got rid of his. "There. Gone. Are you happy now?"

"Very much, actually, yeah."

"What's with the snarky attitude? Not that I'm complaining or anything. It looks pretty sexy on you."

Stefan laughed halfheartedly. "For some reason, I only get it when you're around."

"Huh," mused Katherine. "Poor Elena, then. Guess she won't ever get to be as turned on as I am right now."

Elena? Right, Elena. How could Stefan have let her slip from his mind just then? How could he have let her slip from his mind _at all?_

Stefan looked at Katherine again, _really_ looked at her. She was just as beautiful now as she was when he'd first met her in 1864. Her wild curls framed her face to perfection. Her face looked exactly like Elena's, except maybe with less worry lines. Her smile was wider, her eyes more playful. Stefan was looking – no, _gazing_ into her eyes now; he had to tear away from them. What _was_ it about Katherine Pierce that still managed to draw him towards her, even after all the years he'd spent hating her? She was malicious. Spiteful. Manipulative. But her allure never wore off.

As quickly as the feelings surfaced, they disappeared. He remembered the times when she tried to hurt Elena's loved ones, and even succeded at it. His expression hardened and he began to walk away from her down the mountain.

She appeared in front of him in a flash. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going back, Katherine. I need to know if–"

"If Elena's okay? She's fine, Stefan. She'll live."

Stefan studied her face to see if she was lying.

"If I wanted her dead, don't you think I would've killed her already? Especially now that Klaus is out of the picture. She's not the one I'm after, Stefan."

Stefan said nothing. He knew he couldn't trust her, not even if his life depended on it. _Especially_ if his life depended on it.

"Then who _are_ you after, Katherine?"

Katherine simply smiled and offered her hand. Stefan glanced down at it briefly and then walked right by her, continuing down the mountain.

"You can't leave!" whined Katherine.

Stefan ignored her.

"Come _on_, Stefan."

He didn't turn nor stop walking. Eventually, Katherine strolled alongside him.

"What're you doing?"

"You know that I hate being ignored."

"This isn't an invitation, Katherine. Go away."

"I'm not going anywhere."

Stefan ran across the grasslands and into the woods, hoping to get away from her but Katherine caught up to him within minutes. He ran again, further and deeper into the woods, but she was always even with him.

"That was fun!" Katherine giggled. "Now it's your turn to chase me."

Stefan sat down on the ground and leaned against a large tree trunk. "How long was I out for?" he panted, trying to catch his breath.

"About three and a half days."

"_Three and a half days? _How much vervain did you poison me with, Katherine?"

"Not that much, actually. But considering that your diet includes bunnies and squirrels…"

At the mention of his diet, Stefan felt deliriously hungry. He hadn't fed since the disastrous wedding, and there he was, right in the middle of a large forest in Switzerland. Surely there were some marmots or wild ibexes running around amongst all the tall pine trees.

"Wanna hunt?" asked Katherine, a sly smile playing on her lips.

Stefan chuckled. "You? Hunt? Sorry to break it to you, Katherine, but I don't think there are any humans here, at least not in a couple more miles."

"I could use a change of lifestyle. Maybe you could teach me how to eat poor, defenseless animals."

"You wouldn't last three seconds."

"Try me."

* * *

"God, Stefan. How can you survive like this? I still have room for at least three people!"

"You get used to it over the years," said Stefan, closing his eyes and smiling as he savoured the last marmot he'd caught.

Silence fell between them, and Stefan appreciated the quiet as opposed to Katherine's annoying babbling.

After a while, Katherine spoke up again. "Haven't seen Damon recently."

Stefan's smile vanished. "Uh, yeah. He, uh, left town after Elena took the cure. About three weeks ago."

Stefan had tried hard to avoid thinking about Damon since ever he left Mystic Falls, but it was no use. What he did to Elena and the cure was something that Damon would probably never forgive him for. He wasn't sure if he could forgive himself for it, too, but he'd hoped that as long as he didn't have to think about it, it wasn't going to bother him anymore. He was wrong.

"Couldn't handle seeing you and human Elena fall in love all over again?"

"Yeah, uh, something like that." He didn't want to talk about it, especially not with someone like Katherine. He was sure she'd be elated if she found out he was capable of doing something that could be considered as wicked as the things she'd done.

The more he thought about it, the more it terrorised him, what he'd done. He'd _threatened _Bonnie to do something just so he could have Elena all to himself. Was he really that selfish? No. No, that was Damon. Damon was the selfish one, the monster; he was the kind and noble and compassionate one.

_I'm kind, I'm noble, I'm compassionate. I'm kind, I'm noble, I'm compassionate. I'm kind, I'm noble, I'm…_

_I'm selfish. I'm greedy. I'm the monster._

Stefan buried his face in his hands. He'd be lying if he said it didn't keep him up at night, his selfish act. He'd been so good at pushing the guilt away, especially with Damon out of town and Bonnie too terrified to run into him. But Elena? How could he have ever looked at her the same way again?

Suddenly Stefan didn't feel like going to back to Mystic Falls.

"Look," said Katherine with a sigh, "we can go back if you want. But I want to come with you."

"No." Stefan tried to look past Katherine's eager face. "No, let's stay here awhile."


	6. Dissent

**A/N:** Writer's block is a bitch, isn't it? Hope this chapter doesn't suck as much as I DON'T WANT it to. Please leave reviews. I love hearing opinions, both good and bad.

**Disclaimer:**I don't own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. :-( :-( :-( :-( :-(

* * *

"Well, don't you look all happy and cheery."

Elena smiled at Damon briefly. "I'm feeling pretty good today."

"You mean as opposed to the usual spiralling into depression and refusing to get out of your boyfriend's bed?" He faked a shocked expression. "What a strange turn of events!"

Elena felt her cheeks burn. She ignored him and made her way to the door.

"Where are you heading out to?" asked Damon, though he didn't particularly care.

"I'm meeting Bonnie at the Grill. She's helping me look for Stefan."

That certainly caught Damon's attention. His brows knitted in confusion. "_Bonnie_ is going to help you find _Stefan?_"

"Yeah, she's going to use the locator spell. Why, you wanna come with?"

"Now that you mention it, I kind of miss my usual dose of judgy. Where's the Bennett witch been hiding these couple of days?"

"She's been staying with her family. Her dad's been sick for a couple of weeks now."

_What a convenient excuse,_ thought Damon. "What's up?"

Elena peered at him. "Since when did you care about what goes on in Bonnie's life? I thought she was just 'the Bennett witch' to you?"

"Just trying to make chitchat, Elena. No need to get snippy."

* * *

"So, you think you can do this?"

Bonnie smiled at her best friend. "Yeah, I just need more time. Is that okay?"

Elena opened her mouth to reply, but Damon cut right in. "Sure, Bonnie, take all the time you need. I mean, since it's Katherine who has him, I won't be surprised if my brother doesn't _want_ to be found."

Elena glared at him. "Damon."

"_Elena._"

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "I'm going to go to the restroom." Then, glancing at Bonnie, she said, "Make sure this one behaves."

As soon as she left, Damon looked at Bonnie more closely. "What do you think you're doing?"

"What do you mean? My best friend needs my _help._ I'm _helping_ her. Unless you're not familiar with the word?"

Damon scowled at her. "Why are you looking for the one person who made you play with the cure?"

"What am I supposed to say to Elena? 'Sorry I won't help you find Stefan because he threatened to kill my dad if I didn't–"

Damon raised his eyebrows. "He threatened to kill your dad? Wow. How did my brother became a dick overnight? I mean, surely I would've seen the signs."

Bonnie shrugged. "What are you still doing here, anyway? I thought you left town weeks ago."

"I did, but I came back when I heard about the wedding. I thought she would've…"

Elena appeared out of nowhere and slammed her hands down on the table. "You thought I would've what, Damon? Taken one look at you and then run off with you and we fall in love, just like I did when I was a vampire?"

Damon hadn't even noticed Elena come back from the restroom, and he wondered if she'd heard about Stefan and Bonnie and what they had to do with the cure.

"Well, news flash, Damon. I'm human now. And I love Stefan. I always have and I always will. What we had was only because of the sire bond. Why can't you just accept that?"

"I _can't_ accept that," said Damon, rising from his chair and pressing his own hand onto the table, "because, damn it, I just wish…"

He trailed off, because he realised his hand wasn't on the table. Not directly. He'd placed his hand on another hand, a hand that was now trembling because Damon hadn't realised his voice swelling as he spoke.

Elena quickly pulled her hand from under Damon's. For a moment, Damon could feel her hesitate. Her eyes were watery and her cheeks turned a shade of red.

_Could she be remembering?_ _Was it possible?_

"What? You just wish what?" _No, it wasn't._

He couldn't do it. He couldn't tell her, not like this. Damon glanced at Bonnie, and then looked back at Elena.

"I just wish I could go back. When everything was good."

"You mean when I was a _vampire?_ When I wasn't myself?"

"You're not yourself _right now,_ Elena. Why can't you see that?"

"What are you talking about, Damon?" Elena was yelling now, despite the eyes that bored into her back. "Of course I'm myself! I know what I feel now, and it's that I love Stefan! Just like I always have before you and the sire bond got in the way!"

"You think I wanted for the sire bond to happen? You think I liked knowing you only loved me because you had to, because your veins were carrying my blood? It sucks just as much as knowing you hate me."

"Well, good, because at least now I know it'll hurt just the same." Elena wanted to look him in the eyes, but she couldn't. "I hate you, Damon. I hate you as much as I did before. Maybe even more."

Elena was fighting tears, but she didn't understand why. She never felt anything for Damon. It was all because of the sire bond. She knew that, but…

But why did her heart feel so heavy? Why did she have to force herself to look into his eyes, which were now filled with hurt? Why did she so badly want to take back her words and tell him the opposite of what she'd said?

That she didn't hate him, but instead…

"That's good. That's great. I guess we're back to base one." Damon could hardly look at her. She wasn't going to know, whether he pushed her to or not. Sooner or later, he had to accept it. But not now. Not yet.

"I'll see you at home, Elena. Or you know what? Maybe I won't."

Elena finally found her voice. "Damon, don't…"

But Damon was already walking away from her, for the third time that very week, and from Bonnie, who had kept so quiet that Elena had forgotten she was even there.


	7. Impetuous

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. Sigh.**

**A/N: **Sorry this is such a short chapter. But please, don't hesitate to leave reviews! :-)

* * *

Katherine gaped at Stefan, genuinely shocked at what he'd poured out to her. They were both in a little inn somewhere in the Switzerland countryside. Stefan was dying to drown his sorrows in a drink or two, and Katherine had chosen the place because it looked 'quaint' from the outside, though from the inside it looked just like any old bar except with wooden walls and wooden chairs and a long wooden counter.

"What?" Stefan asked.

"I want to say that I'm impressed, but really I'm just… surprised. I mean, if you haven't noticed, you're not exactly the type of guy that threatens people to get what they want. That's Damon."

"Maybe you don't know me as well as you thought you did."

"No, I know you well enough to know that the only time you would become as psychotic as me is when the Ripper inside you awakens."

"Please don't compare us, Katherine." Stefan grimaced. "I was never going to kill Bonnie's dad. I just said that in the heat of the moment. But I think I really frightened her – she just ran off in tears. She didn't even tell Elena or anyone else about it."

"And you never saw her since?" asked Katherine, too enthralled by the story to notice the bartender asking her if she wanted anything. She shook her head without turning to face him.

"No. She's been staying with her parents since."

"Wait, so that's it? What about Damon?"

Stefan frowned. "Storytime's over, Katherine." He gulped down half of his beer.

"Well, I mean, you're still alive, so it doesn't look like he took it that bad."

"I told him to leave town, he snapped my neck, Elena cried and yelled at him, and when I woke up again he was gone. He didn't tell Elena where he was going, so I figured I wasn't going to see him around anymore."

"And you don't feel guilty about any of this? About scaring the Bennett witch off and practically hypnotising Elena to fall in love with you?"

"I didn't hypnotise Elena!" Stefan slammed his fist down on the counter in anger. A few people gawked at him. He sighed deeply.

"I just…" he trailed off, but continued again. "Elena never stopped loving me."

"Really, Stefan? You still can't see that maybe, just _maybe,_ she's fallen in love with Damon, too?"

Stefan rolled his eyes at her sarcasm. "Of course I know that. That's _why_ I didit. I thought I could make that part of her disappear if I just–"

"If you just made her love you the way _you_ want her to? That's selfish."

"You have no right to judge me, Katherine. What you've done to all of my friends was cruel, but what I did was an act of love–"

"An act of _love?_ You think what you did to Elena, and the witch, and your brother, was done out of love?" Katherine shook her head incredulously. "It was an act of _desperation,_ Stefan. You didn't want to lose the only person you knew could love you the same way you did, and you wanted to make sure it would never go away. I know that feeling, and so does Damon, and Klaus, and the list could go on."

Stefan looked down at his beer. As much as he didn't want to believe it, deep down he knew that every word Katherine said was true. He was desperate, and stupid, and he could never look at Elena and Bonnie the same way again. He would probably never see Damon again.

The sire bond was never Damon's fault. He never meant for it to happen. But what Stefan made Bonnie do to the cure? He messed with Elena's feelings.

And that was completely unforgivable.

* * *

Hours passed, and they were still in the inn. Katherine let out a bored sigh and watched as Stefan chugged down his last (at least, she _hoped_ it was his last) beer, then bury his face in his hands. Exasperating, Katherine got up from her stool and turned to walk away, but Stefan caught her hand.

"Are you going to leave me alone, too?" asked Stefan, his words beginning to slur.

Katherine tried to conceal her surprise. Was he for real? No, he was just drunk. Really, _really_ drunk.

"No, Stefan, I'm just going to the restroom."

"Please, don't leave. I can't handle being alone."

Katherine leaned in so their faces were just inches apart. "I'm not going to leave you alone, okay? I don't want to be alone either." She sighed. "I only kidnapped you from your wedding because… because I have nothing left anymore. I hated the thought of Elena having you. I only came back to get what's mine. I don't have _anyone._ And I'm tired of running. I've spent the last 500 years of my life running. I chose this life, I might as well live it while I can."

Stefan just continued to stare at her blankly, oblivious to whatever she'd just said. "I'm glad you decided to come with me."

Pink spots appeared on either side of Katherine's cheeks. She knew he wouldn't remember any of this the next morning, but she might as well use it to her own advantage. She was, after all, the infamous Katherine Pierce.

"I'm glad I did, too."

She turned around again, but Stefan reached for her neck and pulled her close, his lips crashing against hers.


	8. Truth

**Disclaimer: I do not (and will never) own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters.**

* * *

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead." Damon peeked from the corridor into Stefan's bedroom door, where Elena was moping as usual. She pulled the covers over her head.

"I'm already up," Elena said in between the sheets.

"What was that?" Damon cocked his ear deeper into the room.

"Don't pretend you didn't hear me." Elena sighed and forced herself out of Stefan's bed. "What are you doing here, Damon?"

"If you haven't noticed, _Elena,_ this is my house too. I should be asking you what _you're_ doing here, but judging from your hair, that awfully depressed look on your face, and the fact that you probably haven't showered in a week, you're still mourning for the loss of Stefan."

Elena's hands immediately went up to her head and she hastened to fix her hair. Damon snickered at her.

"First of all, we didn't _lose_ Stefan. He's still out there somewhere with…"

Damon waited, but Elena's voice trailed away. "Katherine? Come on, she's not that scary, just a cold-hearted bitch."

Elena rolled her eyes and walked past Damon. Then she turned back as if she'd forgotten something. "Oh, and second of all, it's only been two days since I last showered."

* * *

Elena sat on the couch by the fireplace and stared at the sheet of flames prancing about on the hearth. Ever since the wedding, she'd been ignoring most of her friends; and even Jeremy. It was as though all she could think about was Stefan, and where he was, and what he was doing, and whether he was thinking about her just as much. It was all getting exhausting, if she could say so herself.

Damon sat next to her and handed her a cup. "Here."

Elena took it and sniffed it suspiciously. Damon looked offended.

"I didn't poison it!"

"I'm just curious as to what _it_ is."

"You could ask nicely instead of sniffing at it."

"Okay, Damon, what is it?"

"Earl Grey."

Elena took one sip and made a face. "It's tasteless!"

"Give me that," Damon said defensively, grabbing the cup from Elena and taking his own sip from it. "Ick!"

Then he poured a few drops of bourbon whiskey into the cup and tried it again. "Much better."

Elena giggled. Damon smiled at her. It was nice to see her laugh, especially since she'd spent the last week burying herself in Stefan's bed. It was just so damn hard to stay angry at her. He knew that none of it was her fault. Sooner or later he had to stop punishing her for something she hadn't even done.

"What?" asked Elena, when Damon didn't take his eyes off her.

"Nothing, you just… you haven't laughed like that since, well, _ever._"

Elena felt herself redden. She took the cup from Damon and drank every last drop of his Earl Grey-bourbon whiskey tea. Then she glanced at the fire glowing luminously.

"Bonnie's not going to look for Stefan, is she?" Elena asked quietly.

Damon sighed. She couldn't go one day without mentioning his brother's name, could she?

"Elena, I don't think I should–"

"Just tell me the truth, Damon."

"I don't know if I can."

"I trust you. You know I do. Please, Damon. What is it you're not telling me?"

"I don't know if Bonnie is going to look for Stefan, but I know I wouldn't if I were her."

"What? Why? He's your brother, Damon, and he's my boyfriend! He–"

"Threatened Bonnie into doing a spell to change the cure."

Elena blinked, confused. "_What_?"

"He threatened to kill Bonnie's dad if she didn't… _alter _the cure before you took it."

"Alter the cure how?" asked Elena, her voice wavering.

"It's fine if you don't believe me, Elena. I had a hard time believing it myself when I found out–"

"What did he make Bonnie do to the cure, Damon?"

Damon looked at Elena, unsure of what to tell her. He took a deep breath. "What we had when you were a vampire… it was real, Elena."

"But the sire bond–"

"The only reason the sire bond worked in the first place was because you had feelings for me _before_ you turned! You might have been denying it when you were human, but it magnified when you became a vampire. The sire bond was just a miserable excuse for it, but I know it was real. _You_ know it was real."

"It was the sire bond." Elena wanted to believe every word that came out of Damon's mouth, she really, _really_ wanted to, but for some reason, she couldn't. Something inside her still believed it was just because of the sire bond, and that she never truly felt anything like that towards Damon. She _couldn't_ have.

"_That's_ what Bonnie did to the cure. It messed with your brain, Elena. It made you think that what you felt for me wasn't real."

"But I don't think…" Elena shook her head, as though even _she_ wasn't convinced with her own words. "I _know_ it wasn't real."

Damon took a step closer towards Elena so she had to tilt her head back a little to look into his eyes. He cupped her face in his hands and leaned in closer, feeling her shaky breath on his skin.

"Then tell me this, Elena," he whispered. "How come your heart's beating twice as fast right now? Why do you have to catch your breath every time I'm this close to you?"

"I don't… I-I don't…" Elena stammered. She wanted to run, turn around, or at the very least look away from his face, but she did none of that. It was as though her feet were glued to the ground. She couldn't move. She _wouldn't_ move.

"You're stuttering," Damon laughed softly. He brushed a finger across her cheek. "And now you're blushing."

"N-no I'm…" Elena finally lost her ability to speak properly whatsoever. She found herself gazing into his blue eyes instead; they were melting into hers and she found it so difficult to look away. She blinked and quickly glanced down at his lips, which she later realised was an even bigger mistake.

His lips looked so soft despite the harsh words that often came out of them. She couldn't stop staring; she knew it was ridiculous, but she _couldn't._ Suddenly she felt an overwhelming desire to press her lips against his. The feeling consumed her, and she was slowly moving closer and closer and–

"Elena!" Bonnie burst through the Salvatore boarding house front door. "I can't lie to you anymore. You have the right to know. I did something to the cure, but only because Stefan–"

Bonnie stopped mid-sentence and took a proper look at Damon and Elena. "What's going on here?"

Damon backed away from Elena and turned around to face Bonnie, evidently annoyed. "What's going on is that you couldn't have picked a worse time to barge into my house with information Elena already knows."

"You told her?"

"Yeah, but it all depends on whether she believes it or not."

"Hi, guys?" Elena called out. "I'm right here."

Bonnie put a hand on her best friend's shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Elena. I was scared. I didn't think Stefan was capable of–"

"He's _not._ I know he's not."

Damon and Bonnie exchanged a look. Elena sighed and headed for the stairs.

"Look, I'm really tired. Can we talk about this tomorrow?"

When Bonnie didn't respond, Damon replied, "Yeah, of course. Goodnight, Elena."

"Night," said Elena hastily.

As Elena hurried up the steps with her cheeks flushed, the overwhelming desire from before didn't fade away. Not completely, anyway. She realised she was smiling – no, _grinning_ like an idiot. She hadn't even thought about Stefan at all before Bonnie came over and mentioned his name.


	9. Sentiment

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. Because my life is sucky like that.**

**A/N:** The chapter-alternating between Delena and Steferine ends here. I'll be continuing the story according to the events that take place. Thank you to you kind reviewers for leaving such nice comments :-) I hope you'll continue telling me what you think about the story and whether it's good or it sucks so I know what to fix. Sorry if I'm dragging the story too long but I wanted it to have more chapters than what I'd predicted it would have when I started.

* * *

A quick, forceful crack of thunder woke Stefan up with a jolt. He felt an arm twitch slightly around his bare body – Katherine's. A series of sickening thoughts clouded Stefan's mind. _Oh, no. Oh, fucking hell._

He turned over onto his side to face her. She looked somewhat peaceful despite her frenzied hair, her smeared makeup, and the fact that she was completely unclothed save for a thin layer of blanket. For a minute, for just one minute, Stefan allowed himself to forget all the horrible things she'd done. He continued to stare at Katherine, who now had a smile spreading on her face.

"You just can't take your eyes off me, can you?"

Stefan frowned. Who was he kidding? He never could forget what she'd done to ruin not only _his_ life, but also everyone else that he'd cared about. He slid out of bed and picked his clothes up from the floor. He headed for the door but Katherine beat him to it, blocking his only exit. She'd pulled the blanket along with her, though the sheet was so sheer it was enough to expose everything beyond it. She smiled playfully.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going back, Katherine." Stefan made an effort – a _huge_ one – to avoid looking at her, so he kept his eyes on the floor as he spoke.

"Already? But you were so eager to stay."

"I wasn't myself." Stefan was still talking to the floor. He felt stupid for even having to. She didn't have any effect on him anymore. At least, she wasn't _supposed_ to.

"When are you ever?"

"Look, I'm done wasting my time here with you. I'm accomplishing nothing by being here."

"And what do you think you're going to accomplish by going back?" Katherine challenged. "Hasn't it occurred to you that maybe with you gone, Bonnie's spilled the beans on the cure already? I doubt Elena will be waiting for you with open arms then."

Stefan said nothing. She moved closer towards him, her broad smile still solid.

"Come _on_, Stefan," she said, running a finger across his bare chest. "Tell me you feel nothing for me. I dare you."

"Oh, I definitely feel something for you. It's hatred. It always has been."

Katherine smirked. "I've heard that hatred is just as passionate as love. Maybe even more."

She reached out a hand to touch his face, letting the only piece of cloth around her body fall. Stefan felt a lump suddenly form in his throat. She was coming on to him; he knew it very well but for some reason, he couldn't pull away from her. Was this his fate? Having to make one mistake after another? It didn't seem to matter if he made one more right now. After all, Katherine wasn't the only one capable of manipulation. Not anymore.

"So," Katherine asked, her voice dripping with seduction, "do you really have to go back _right now_?"

* * *

"You're telling me that Stefan _manipulated_ me into thinking that what I had with Damon was solely because of the sire bond? How do you expect me to believe something like that?"

"I know it's crazy," sighed Bonnie, "but the sire bond didn't affect your feelings. The spell did."

"It _was_ the sire bond," Elena objected. "I would never…"

She trailed off, remembering Damon's presence in the room. He raised his eyebrows, urging her to go on. She didn't.

"But you did. Look, I'm not saying this because I want you to be with Damon." Damon shot Bonnie a look, which she chose to ignore. "I regret what I did, and I want you to know that I would never have gotten involved if he didn't have something against me."

Elena looked at the floor. "Your dad." Bonnie nodded. Elena found it difficult to believe that Stefan would do something like that. But her best friend wouldn't go to such great lengths to create a lie. What reason would she have to do so, anyway?

"Well, can't you undo it? Surely there's a spell."

"That's the thing… I can't. You took the cure, you became human, and that's it. There's nothing I can do. As long as you're a human, there's no way to undo it."

Elena's eyes widened. "Are you telling me that the only way to break whatever spell I'm under is for me to _die_?"

"Or die and then come back as… something else," answered Damon.

The room grew quiet and the only sound that could be heard was the crackle of the flames in the fireplace. The three of them sat silently as Elena slowly began to take in… everything. Once again, she was divested of her freedom of choice. Once again, she wasn't in control of her feelings. Once again, she was the miserable, helpless victim.

A sudden rush of anger, disbelief, betrayal and every other irate feeling engulfed her all at once. She thought about Stefan, whom she had spent the last three weeks devoting all her life to. She was glad the spell Bonnie had cast only messed with her feelings for Damon and didn't make her fall more deeply in love Stefan, because she sure as hell wasn't anymore. She was in love with the Stefan she knew – or at least she _thought_ she knew. Because he wasn't under any compulsion, was he? He did what he did willingly. He had a selfish streak she never would've guessed he had, a streak that he (surprisingly) shared with his brother. A streak that was now starting to wear off on the said brother.

And the only way she could break the spell was to die, or become what she and her friends had fought so hard to undo. Tears began to spring furiously from her eyes. She was supposed to be able to make her own choices, but after everything she'd been through, nothing changed.

"Elena…" Damon called out, his voice soft and full of concern. Both he and Bonnie were staring at her, and it was then when she realised she was standing up. Her hands were balled up into fists. Her head was spinning and she felt consumed by her own emotions. She staggered her way to the front door.

"Elena–"

"I just need some air, okay? I need–" Elena broke into a quiet sob.

"Elena, calm down," Bonnie said, following her to the front door but Elena backed away from her, from the house, from _everything_, and continued running down the path and out onto the road.

"It's funny, isn't it?" Elena said to no one in particular. "I keep calling it _my_ life but it doesn't feel that way at all." She buried her face in her hands.

Everything happened so quickly after that. She heard Bonnie call out her name over and over, but she didn't respond.

"_Elena, watch out_!"

Elena only had a quarter of a second to pry her hands off her face and look up to see a truck speeding down the road. And it was coming right at her.


	10. Unpleasantries

**Disclaimer: No, I do not and will never own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters.**

* * *

Damon scooped Elena up from the ground where she'd been lying unconscious in a pool of her own blood. She whimpered faintly in his arms. Her blood was quickly staining his shirt. He set her down on the couch by the fireplace and quickly tore at his arm, ready to force it into her mouth but then stopped mid-air.

"Damon?" Bonnie called, but her voice sounded a million miles away.

He let his hand fall back onto the couch and only watched as the blood flowed relentlessly from Elena's head. Her heartbeat was getting weaker and weaker by the second. She let out short, rapid breaths and her eyes were only half-open. He wanted to save her. He _had_ to save her, it was out of the question, but…

"What are you _waiting_ for? Give her your blood!"

For a brief second, Damon became completely paranoid. What if she started freaking out again once she woke up? What if she got herself killed when he wasn't looking? So many different kinds of scenarios started playing in his head. He couldn't risk going through the sire bond all over again. That brief second turned into an agonisingly _long_ minute.

"No," he replied, though it came out as more of a whisper.

"No?" Bonnie peered at him incredulously. "What do you mean, _no_?"

"Call Caroline over," Damon blurted.

"_What_?"

"Call the scatterbrained blonde vampire over here right now to heal Elena."

"You're seriously not going to heal her? What's the matter with you? Caroline probably won't even make it in time!"

"Then you better tell her to hurry," Damon said simply, not taking his eyes off Elena's face. "You can take the pain away, can't you? While we wait for Caroline."

"Only _some_ of it." Bonnie didn't question him anymore because for one, she wasn't that stupid, and anyway, her best friend was fading fast right before her eyes. She closed her eyes and began murmuring a spell.

* * *

Caroline plopped herself down on an empty spot on the couch next to Damon. It was quiet apart from Bonnie, who was still using her powers to quicken Elena's healing process with the help of Caroline's blood. Caroline glanced at Damon, who was still watching Elena intently.

"I understand why you didn't want to heal her."

"Good, that means we don't have to talk about it," Damon snapped.

"She was _dying_, Damon! Would you have just let her die?"

When Damon said nothing, Caroline raised her eyebrows. "_Would you_?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Of course not! That's why Bonnie's here. That's why _you're_ here. See, we found a purpose for you after all."

"Right, I'm the emergency vampire. The one you guys call for help if there's no one else around."

Damon didn't reply. His mind was too occupied with Elena to any room for guilt, especially when it came to Caroline. He looked back at Elena.

_Wake up, damn it. I didn't _not_ heal you just so you wouldn't._

Suddenly, Elena started gasping and spluttering sharply. Bonnie fell back onto the floor, confused. Elena stopped coughing then. In fact, she stopped breathing altogether. The colour drained from Damon's face. _No, no, no, no,_ _no. Please, no._

"Elena?" Damon was by her side within moments, his hands caressing her back. "What happened?"

"The spell! It… it rebounded!"

"What do you mean? Is she…?" Damon's voice trailed off. "No, Bonnie, that's not an option! Do something!"

"I can't! I'm not in control anymore!"

Damon grasped Bonnie's shoulders so tightly she winced. "She _can't_ die! It's not going to happen!" He felt his eyes sting with tears. What had he _done_? _Why_ didn't he just heal her when he had the chance? He _really_ fucked up this time. He was so angry with himself that he almost didn't hear what Caroline said next.

She spoke up and the two words came crashing down like a hurricane. "My blood."

Damon looked at her, his face devoid of any emotion.

"My blood's still in her system, isn't it?" Caroline asked Bonnie, who breathed a sigh of relief. "She's going to live."

_She was going to live_.

Damon shook his head. No, she wasn't. Not really. She was going to come back as something that everyone had tried to hard to reverse, and now all of their efforts had gone to waste. The last time she became a vampire, it ended up being a disaster. But this time… this time it was going to be different. This time, there wouldn't be any sire bond preventing them from being together.

The tiny speck of happiness faded away as soon as it came. She was going to be a vampire, _again_, and it was all his fault. If only he'd just healed her with his blood earlier, Bonnie wouldn't have had to conjure up the stupid spell only to have it backfire later. What was Elena going to think of him?

He felt queasy, as if someone had punched him in the gut. She would think he was a coward. One who let his own delusions and insecurities get the best of him.

Damon hoisted her up into his arms and walked up the stairs, ignoring Caroline and Bonnie's puzzled looks.

"You should go home," Damon said to the both of them, his face still blank. "I'll let you know when she wakes up."

He carried her to his bed and tucked her in gently. He rested his chin on the edge of the bed and watched as she _didn't_ move, make a sound or much less _breathe_. There wasn't going to be any response from her at all for a while, he knew that; but there was nothing wrong with hoping, was there?

"I'm sorry, Elena," he whispered. He slipped his hand in hers and frowned. It was cold and stiff and… _dead_. He sighed. There was nothing else to do but wait.

* * *

Stefan opened his eyes as soon as he heard the sound of water falling. Was it raining again?Sitting up, he noticed that he was alone on the bed. Katherine was in the shower. He crawled out of bed as quietly as he could.

_This is my chance_, he thought. He put his clothes on swiftly and, pulling the door open, he sneaked out of the shady bed-and-breakfast they'd stayed in and ran away as fast as he could, not once looking back.

He didn't know where he was going, and for the most part he didn't care, so he kept on running as far as his legs allowed him and stopped only when he was hungry. Once he was out of Europe and in North America, he decided to stay there while he figured out what he was going to tell Elena when he returned to Mystic Falls.

Stefan was strolling along the street, basking in his triumphant escape from Katherine when he saw him, a familiar face in the crowd of people. He scrutinised the man to make sure if it really was whom he thought knew, but the fawn-coloured hair and the slight facial scruff was unmistakable. The last time he saw him was on that godforsaken island, the one where they'd found the cure. Stefan wanted to hide desperately, but it was too late. He knew he was already seen.

As he walked closer towards him, Stefan realised that he came face to face with Galen Vaughn.


	11. Recognition

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. Yet. Just kidding, I never will.**

**A/N: The Vaughn in my story is a bit (a ****_lot_****) less charming than the one on TVD. Sorry about that.**

* * *

"You're not the Salvatore I was hoping to find." Vaughn's face twisted into a roguish grin.

"Look, I don't know where my brother is. He fled town weeks ago and I haven't seen him since."

"Ah, did the doppelgänger come between the two of you yet again?"

Stefan didn't even bother asking him how he knew anything about them and just walked past him, but Vaughn caught up. It was what he was holding in his hand that made Stefan go rigid: a slick wooden stake so professionally carved that he knew it would kill him the instant it pierced through his chest. Stefan swallowed hard.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Vaughn twirled the stake between his fingers. "What _are_ you doin' here, Stefan Salvatore?"

"That's none of your business."

"I really don't want to cause a scene in front of so many people."

"I'm on my way back to Mystic Falls."

"Really, now? Where were you from?"

Stefan said nothing and looked down at the ground. Vaughn touched the tip of the stake against Stefan's neck. A few people around them glanced in their direction, but none of them stopped long enough to wonder what was happening.

"We'll have to try that again, won't we? Where were you from, Stefan?"

"Switzerland."

"Switzerland?" Vaughn cocked his eyebrow. "What business did you have all the way there?"

"Katherine…" Stefan couldn't say 'kidnapped' because he knew he would have to go deeper into the story, "…_took_ me there."

"Katherine Pierce, eh? Haven't seen her in a while. Right then, I guess she'll do just fine."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that lass left me for dead on the island," he said grimly. "And she's going to pay for that."

Vaughn started walking away from him. "Just let me know when you see your brother again. I've got a treat for that one."

And then he was out of Stefan's sight, swallowed by the crowd of people. Stefan stood, wondering what he should do and why, just _why_ he had to be in the middle of it. He paced on the street and, sighing loudly, he ran off the same way he came, back to Switzerland. Back to Katherine.

* * *

Elena inhaled sharply and glanced around the room. She felt a hand grasp hers tightly at her side.

"Elena." It was Damon, looking relieved and worried at the same time. "I'm sorry I didn't–"

"_Damon_." Elena's face crinkled up in a smile. Without any warning, she leaned over and kissed him square on the mouth, surprising both themselves, but neither of them pulled away. Damon let his lips linger on hers a bit longer just in case he didn't get another chance.

And then, as if realising just _what_ they were doing, he gave her a light shove. "Wait a second."

"What is it?" asked Elena, reaching out a hand towards his face. He felt his skin heat up at her touch.

"You remember? About the sire bond, and thinking that you loved me…"

"Love," Elena corrected. "And I don't think it. I _know_ I love you, Damon. I always have."

He felt a tug in his chest, a feeling between happiness and sorrow that was so crammed it nearly choked him. He stared at her for a moment, letting it sink in. Just days ago she'd been strongly denying the mere possibility of ever having _felt_ something for him and now, she was telling him that she loved him.

So the spell was broken. And she really _did_ love him, just like he thought she did before. It wasn't because of the sire bond, it never was. He was so happy he could cry, but then he remembered that he was Damon Salvatore and he didn't do such things.

"So, this is real." It was more of a statement than a question.

"It's real." Elena grinned at him. "It's always _been_ real, up until my mind was poisoned to make me _forget_ that it was real." She frowned. "I must have been such a pain to have around–"

"Stop _talking_," Damon mumbled, silencing her with was intended to be a quick peck on the lips but ended up being more than just that. They sat close, their bodies pressed together, their lips practically glued to one another as they kissed passionately, like two lovers who had been totally deprived of kissing and had forgotten just how good it felt.

Elena was the one to break it apart this time, panting as she tried to catch her breath. Damon laughed quietly, but then immediately remembered why she was feeling so weak.

He picked up a blood bag from the floor and put it in front of her on the bed. "I was stupid, and selfish, and I'm sorry, Elena. I know I should've healed you right away, but then I thought about the sire bond when I shouldn't have even thought about _anything else_…"

But she wasn't listening, not to any of it. Her eyes focused on the blood bag and, without thinking twice, she hastily grabbed it and squeezed it into her mouth. At the second – no, third – drop of the sweet, succulent human blood, she gasped and dropped the blood bag.

"Wh-what…?"

"Shh, listen to me." Damon placed his hands on either side of her face. "Elena, you're in transition." He darted a glance at the blood bag and sighed. "Or at least, you were."

Elena's hands flew up to her throat. "You mean I'm… a _vampire_?"

"Bonnie did a spell to heal you, but it backfired. Caroline's blood was in your system."

"B-but…"

A pained expression came over Damon's face. Instinctively, he put his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest. She didn't fight or push him away, so he saw it as a good sign.

"I'm so sorry, Elena. I know there's nothing I can do to make this situation better, but I _can_ promise you something."

"What's that?"

"I'm going to teach you. Properly this time. I'm going to be there for you when you need me – heck, even when you _don't_ need me. But I can only do it if you let me. There's no sire bond anymore so we can do it right this time. I'm going to make it _right_, Elena."

She stopped weeping and took a good look at him. "There's no sire bond."

"No."

"I'm free?"

Damon nodded. "Which also means that there's nothing stopping me from doing this." He leaned in and kissed her again. "I will do everything I can to help you, Elena. I promise."


	12. Comfort

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. Sigh.**

**A/N: Only a few more chapters until the end of this story! I hope you guys stick with me till the end.**

* * *

Elena's eyelids flew open. She was lying on top of Damon's chest in his bedroom. His arm hung around her loosely. She smiled and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer towards her. It felt so warm, so snug; Elena thought she might never move again.

"Morning," he murmured, giving her a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Morning, Damon," replied Elena, reaching up to kiss him on the lips.

He felt his lips turn somewhat numb. It'd been almost two days but he still found it all hard to believe. All those times he'd spent fighting for her and now, he finally had her. And all along he'd thought that her feelings for him weren't real but they were, because here she was in his arms to prove it.

When Elena noticed that he was still looking at her, she asked, "What?"

"Nothing, I… I'm just thinking about us. About how unbelievably lucky I am." He traced the contours of her lips with his finger. "I love you, Elena."

Elena grinned. "I love you, too."

There it was again, that little pull at his heart; a mixed feeling of bliss and sadness. It gripped his throat and he found himself not able to breathe.

"Do you want to go somewhere with me?" he said suddenly.

"I'd go anywhere with you, Damon."

He smiled at that note. "No, really. Let's get out of here. Just you and me, off to see the world."

She looked at him as if he was crazy. But when he didn't throw his head back in laughter to show that he was kidding, Elena bit her lip.

"Damon…"

His smile faltered. "No, it's okay. I wasn't thinking straight. I mean, you're _just_ getting used to the fact that you're a vampire again and–"

"I'd love to."

"What?"

"I mean, yes, let's go someplace!"

"Are you sure?"

Elena nodded. "I want to. Besides, I'll be with _you_."

"Good point." He smirked.

"So, where will we be going?"

"Oh no, I'm not telling you. It's gonna be a surprise."

"You _know_ I hate surprises," Elena groaned, sitting up.

"That's right, you do!" Damon replied in mock surprise. "Oh well, guess I'll just have to hope you won't hate me so much in the next few days."

"I couldn't." Elena smiled, kissing him once more. "Not ever."

"Mm, I like the sound of that."

* * *

Stefan arrived at the bed-and-breakfast within a couple of hours. Not hesitating for a second, he pounded on the door to their room.

There was no response.

"Katherine, open up!"

Nothing.

Stefan twisted the doorknob hard enough for the lock to break and rushed inside. The room was empty. The bed was made and the furniture looked untouched. She was gone. There was no sign of her.

"How did you get in there, sweetie?" Stefan turned around to see Muriel, the owner of the bed-and-breakfast. "It was locked."

"Where is she?" Stefan compelled her.

"She left yesterday."

"Yesterday?" Stefan looked thoughtful. She couldn't have gone far, unless she was using her vampire super speed. "Where did she go?"

"She mentioned something about Paris. The city of love. It's a bit ironic, if you ask me, considering she left without you."

Stefan rolled his eyes. Typical Katherine. He thanked Muriel, compelled her to forget everything they were talking about and left the bed-and-breakfast. Upon reaching Paris, he searched high and low for her, but to no avail. He was about to give up when he heard her voice at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower.

"Merci," she said to someone. Stefan didn't bother to look at whoever it was, because for the first time in a very long time, he had never been happier to see Katherine. He followed behind her and when he was stopped by a guard, he didn't hesitate to compel him.

"Of all the places, Stefan," Katherine said, without turning to face him.

"I came to talk to you."

"You knew where I was?"

"I compelled Muriel to tell me."

"And what reason would you have to go back there? Surely it wasn't for me, since you just couldn't _wait_ to leave." She sulked at him.

"I ran into Vaughn at Pittsburgh."

"Vaughn, huh? Well, that's weird. I haven't seen that guy since I left him on that rotten island."

"Exactly. He's still hung up about it and he's after you."

If everything else Stefan said didn't get her attention, this definitely did. "_What_?"

"He wants to kill you, Katherine, and he's already on his way to Switzerland. If he finds out you're not there…"

"You ratted me out?"

Stefan swept a glance downwards, not looking the slightest bit guilty.

"And you came back for me." Katherine smiled. Stefan avoided her gaze.

"Look, we have to get out of here. Once Vaughn knows you're in Paris he'll–"

"Okay," Katherine cut in. "Okay. But we still have a little time. Come up to the top with me?" She gestured towards the Eiffel Tower.

"Katherine…"

"It'll just take a minute. Please?"

Stefan sighed. "Fine. Whatever. And then we'll leave?"

"And then we'll leave." Katherine offered her hand, but he walked past it and up the stairs, ignoring her scowl. If only there weren't so many people, then he could at least cheat and jump straight to the top. _It's going to be a long climb_, he thought miserably.


	13. Devoted

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters.**

* * *

They stood at the top of the Eiffel Tower for hours. People came and went, but they stayed and watched as the bright, yellow sun dimmed into an orange ball in the sky.

"The view from up here is _amazing_," Katherine breathed.

"That's the fourth time you've said that already."

"It's nice to know you're keeping count."

Stefan glowered at her. "You said we'd be up here for only a minute."

"Then why don't you just leave? In fact, why bother coming back at all?"

Stefan opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again when he realised he didn't know _how_ to.

"You were worried about me, weren't you?"

Stefan still said nothing. He was, but he wasn't exactly dying to admit it.

"You came back to warn me. And to make sure I was okay."

"Can we just go now? The longer we stay, the quicker he gets here."

"For what it's worth, thank you. I know how much you hate me, so I appreciate it."

"You're welcome," Stefan muttered. He started down the steps, but then stopped dead.

"What is it, Stefan?"

"It's Vaughn. He's here. I can hear him."

"I can hear him, too." Katherine froze. "But how did he get here so fast?"

"Maybe it's because we spent the whole fucking day up here! That 'minute' turned into five whole hours, Katherine!" Stefan yelled the accusing tone unmistakable in his voice. Katherine flinched. She rarely saw this side of Stefan.

"I'm _sorry_! I just wanted–"

"Save it, we have to get out of here _now_. Maybe we can sneak past him."

They hurried down the stairs and away from the Eiffel Tower. Quietly, they sneaked out of the busy part of France and wandered through the more deserted streets.

"I think we lost him," said Katherine.

"Think again, Katherine Pierce."

Both Stefan and Katherine stiffened. They turned around to face Vaughn. He had a smug look on his face. He was still holding the wooden stake, but he also had a crossbow slung over his shoulder and a shotgun, unquestionably loaded with wooden bullets.

"You had time to stock up."

"You were supposed to come back and get me once you had your hands on the cure."

"Ugh, _crap_, I knew I'd forgotten something."

Vaughn was in no mood to play along with Katherine's sarcasm. He briskly reached for the shotgun and aimed it at her, ready to pull the trigger until–

Until Stefan tossed it out of his arm and pushed him back into a tree. "Don't."

"Well, isn't this a turn of events? You couldn't get the Gilbert girl, so you go after the Pierce."

Stefan slammed him against the tree once more. "Shut up."

Vaughn only let out a laugh. "It's quite understandable, really. I've heard about your obsession with the doppelgängers. I do find it a bit creepy, though."

Stefan snatched the stake from Vaughn's hand and was ready to drive it through his chest and finally end him.

"Stefan, stop!" He glanced at Katherine, who looked genuinely worried. "The Hunter's Curse."

Stefan gritted his teeth. He threw the stake away and punched Vaughn hard in the face. When he didn't so much as shudder, he struck again and again, clobbering him to the point where he fell back onto the ground, unconscious.

"Let's go," he ordered Katherine. "It'll buy us some time."

"I know this is probably the worst timing ever, but _damn_, that was hot."

Stefan looked at her with a deadpan expression. She said no more and followed behind as they made their way back home to Mystic Falls.

* * *

"Shh, do you hear that?" Damon nuzzled Elena's neck.

She giggled. "Hear what?"

"Come on, focus, Elena. _That_."

"It's music."

"It's coming from downstairs."

"Weird."

"No, not weird. Fun."

"How is it fun?"

"Like this." Damon twirled her around and she giggled some more.

Elena wrapped her arms around his neck and let him lead whatever they were doing. Damon's hands found his way around her waist. They weren't exactly dancing, just spinning around. Elena never actually heard anything, but if Damon thought he heard music, then she would just go along with it.

"It's unfair, you know," Elena said as she gazed into his eyes.

"What?"

"Your eyes. They're compelling, even when you don't mean to compel."

"So what you're saying is, they're hypnotising?" Damon inched closer towards her so the tip of their noses touched. They stood, unmoving, as they felt each other's breaths on their skin.

"Y-yes…" Elena swallowed hard.

Damon smirked. "Don't let your boyfriend's stunning blue eyes bother you _that _much. His lips do a better job, I guarantee you."

Elena felt her stomach flop at the B-word, but she certainly liked the sound of it. She liked it a lot more than she should. Damon didn't wait any longer to press his lips against hers, and she didn't hesitate to kiss him back either.

"Your girlfriend can definitely agree to that."

He grinned and pulled her onto the bed with him. They lay horizontal to one another, letting a long but comforting minute of silence pass by. Elena felt so happy, so at ease; if only Damon didn't have to ruin it.

"Wonder where Stefan is right now."

Elena frowned and turned away from him. Staring up at the ceiling, she asked, "_Why_?"

"Well, for one, he's my brother, Elena. As much as I try to hate him, I just can't."

"He's not _mine_, so I don't have to try," huffed Elena.

Damon stroked her hair. "You shouldn't be so hard on him."

Elena jerked away from his touch. "Why _not_? He manipulated me, Damon. He made me believe that I was still the Elena that was once in love with him. He made me forget I was in love with _you_."

Damon felt a surge of satisfaction wash over his chest. It felt so nice to hear that she was in love with him. It was going to take a while for him to get used to it.

"I know, but I can see where he was coming from."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that he only did it because he didn't want to lose you. He just acted really… _desperate_ about it."

"Desperate or not, I don't really know if I can forgive him for it." Elena's voice retracted to a whisper. "Would you have done the same?"

"No," Damon replied quickly, and his expression hardened. "I might be selfish, Elena, but I'm not _that_ selfish. I would never strip you of your freedom just so you could be with me."

Elena snuggled her head into his shoulder. "Thank you."

"That's hardly something to thank me for."

"No, I mean thank you for staying. While I was still under the spell. I probably said things I never even meant – really _awful_ things – but you stayed anyway." She grimaced as she remembered telling Damon that she hated him _and_ knowing it would hurt him that afternoon at the Grill, when she'd asked Bonnie to help her look for Stefan.

"I told you, Elena. I will never leave you. Not even if you kick me out yourself."

Elena smiled and reached for his hand. Their fingers intuitively interlaced with one another. Damon planted a soft kiss on the tip of her nose.

"Ready for our adventure tomorrow?"

"You mean to this surprise place you're taking me? God, am I ever." She made no effort to hide the lack of enthusiasm in her voice.

"That's the spirit," Damon chuckled.


	14. Livid

"So, is this like, a honeymoon trip or something?" Caroline's eyes shone with excitement. She, Bonnie and Jeremy were standing just outside the doorway as Elena bustled out of the house with two luggage bags, Damon following behind her. Damon and Elena exchanged a look. Leave it to Caroline to make everyone uncomfortable.

"I told you, Care, we're just going on a road trip." Then, heaving both bags into the trunk of Damon's car, Elena looked at him and exclaimed, "Why couldn't you carry your _own_ luggage?"

"Because how else was I supposed to this?" He cupped his hands around her face and leaned in to kiss her. Jeremy made a gagging sound and Bonnie shielded her eyes. Caroline gave them a look that said, 'Oh, like _you_ two aren't sickening.'

"Nicely done," Elena replied, pulling his face closer to hers and, before the other three knew, they were in for a full-fledged smooch fest.

"Ugh," Caroline made a face. "Okay, we've _really_ gotta go now. Have fun on your trip! Send us postcards or… you know, not."

They left the two lovebirds, who were too wrapped up in their own world to notice. Damon opened the door to the passenger seat. "After you."

Elena giggled, scrambling into the seat. Just as the door clicked shut, Elena groaned.

"Damn it, I left my purse in our room," Elena grumbled, then blushed furiously when she realised exactly _what_ she said. She referred to Damon's room as _theirs_. Looking at Damon, he didn't notice, but even if he did, he didn't seem to mind.

"Don't move, I'll get it." He disappeared back into the house.

Elena drummed her fingers on the seat and waited. Despite not knowing where they were going, she couldn't remember a time when she felt so excited. Then suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a figure lurking on the other side of the street through the side mirror. She turned around to make sure she wasn't dreaming and… _yes_, there he was, standing right across the spacious road. The mere sight of him arose every bit of the pent-up anger that Elena had spent the past few days trying to forget.

She got out of the car and stormed towards him. "Unbelievable."

Stefan looked sheepish. "Elena, I–"

"How _could_ you?"

"I can explain."

"Please!" cried Elena, crossing her arms across her chest. "Please, do explain."

Stefan's face crumpled up with guilt and dejection. He hadn't actually thought about what to say to her. She had every right to be angry with him, and there was nothing he could do to make up for what he'd done. When Elena realised he wasn't going to try to explain himself, she shook her head in disbelief.

"That's what I thought. How _dare_ you do that to me, Stefan? To Damon, and Bonnie? She was scared stiff of you! You have no idea how badly she was affected by it. She can barely control her powers anymore!"

Stefan stopped listening when he noticed the dark veins branching out beneath Elena's now bloodshot eyes. "Elena, your eyes. Are you…? No, it _can't_ be."

"It _can_, and it _did_. I remember everything now. The spell Bonnie did on the cure is broken, Stefan. I _know_ my feelings for Damon were real, and they still are. But how could you make me _forget_ them?"

He wasn't hearing any of it. All he could think about was that she had become a vampire again. "How…?" And then he laughed bitterly, as if he just realised what was going on. "It was Damon, wasn't it? He turned you! And now you're sired to him all over again."

"Caroline's blood turned me!" Elena shouted. "It was _never_ the fucking sire bond!"

"Caroline's blood?" Stefan looked puzzled. "B-but…"

"But _nothing_, Stefan. If you really loved me, you would've accepted my love for Damon and moved on. Not manipulate me into thinking I was still in love with you, get me thinking that you were the one for me, have me _marry_ you…" Elena shuddered at the thought, "then show up over a week later to tell me that you can _explain_ what you did! There is absolutely no explanation for it."

"I couldn't lose you, Elena. I thought you understood that."

"Are you _still_ trying to defend yourself about it, Stefan? You're unbelievable! Where the hell were you this week? Because it doesn't look to me like you were held captive against your will. Where's your captor?"

Stefan shifted his gaze to the ground, looking shamefaced. He couldn't exactly admit that he gave in to Katherine's allure. Elena shook her head again.

"You know what I think, Stefan? I think that when you threatened Bonnie to do that spell on the cure, you didn't do it because you loved me and you thought I loved me back. You did it _in spite of _it. You couldn't bear to lose that love that you thought still existed, and so you decided to bottle it up for god knows _how_ long you were going to keep up the fakery for."

Elena's words hit him like a sharp blow. He'd been convincing himself that what he did wasn't all that wrong and that Elena could forgive him easily. But when he realised exactly _what_ he had done, he didn't want her to forgive him. Because he couldn't bring himself to, either.

"I'm so sorry, Elena," he managed to squeak. "I shouldn't have done what I did, it was wrong. I won't stay if you don't want me to."

"I don't want you to," Elena replied immediately.

Stefan swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in his throat. He knew it was a stupid idea to come back, but the least he could do now was let her know about Vaughn. "Just know that Vaughn's back. And he's after my brother."

"What? But why–" Elena looked back at the house.

"Goodbye, Elena."

When Elena turned to look at him again, he was gone. At the same time, she heard a crack from inside the house, followed by a moan. She raced into the house, Stefan's words ringing in her head. _He's after my brother._

Elena burst open the bedroom door. "Damon? Damon! Da–"

As she walked over to the other side of the bed, she froze. Because what she saw before her was Damon, lying motionless on the ground. With a wooden stake sticking out of his chest.


	15. Return

**Disclaimer: **I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters.

**A/N:** This is probably the first story I have ever finished (EVER), and I'm sorry if it's a little rushed but I decided that it would be best to end to story this way. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing, and I'm already in the process of writing a new fic so I hope you guys keep an eye out for it.

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"_Damon!_"

Elena ran to his side and fell to her knees. With shaking hands, she pulled the stake out of his chest, but he didn't wake up. His skin was ashen and chapped. She put her hands on either side of his face and gasped. His skin was cold, _dead_ cold. She shook him fiercely, tears running down her face.

"No, no, wake up, Damon! Please wake up." Elena's vision became blurry. "You can't leave me!"

A sudden idea came to her mind. She rushed downstairs, grabbed a blood bag and returned to the room. Squeezing it inches above his face, she ordered, "Drink, Damon. Please."

The blood dripped every which way, except into his mouth. Elena blinked through her tears. He was really gone. She was never going to see him again. Elena shook her head furiously.

But she'd just gotten him _back_.

Rage quickly replaced her sorrow, and vengeance clouded her mind. She knew _exactly_ what she was going to do. She was going to find Vaughn. And though she knew she couldn't kill him because of the Hunter's Curse, she was going to make him pay for what he did. She was going to torture the _hell_ out of him.

She grabbed the stake and dashed outside. The sun wasn't shining as brightly as it did earlier that day. Despite the clear sky, Elena felt as though every miserable grey cloud gathered above her. She glanced at Damon's car, which was still filled with their luggage. She felt her eyes sting as she remembered the conversation they had.

_"Do you want to go somewhere with me?"_

_"I'd go anywhere with you, Damon."_

Elena could barely choke back her tears. She was going to spend the rest of her eternity with him. They were going to go off to see the world together. The grief and pain came rushing back all at once. It felt as though someone had smashed her heart into a million pieces, and she could feel every jagged piece gashing through her skin. She wrapped her fingers tightly around the stake.

"Where are you?" she cried out. "I know you're still there!"

A loud clatter came from behind the Salvatore boarding house. Elena snapped her head towards the back of the house to sense where it came from, and she walked slowly towards the spot.

"Sorry about your boyfriend, lassie," said Vaughn, though there wasn't a hint of remorse in that Scottish tone of his. "I was going to clean up after him, but as you can see, I'm not quite fond of vampires. Especially _dead_ ones."

Elena made a beeline for him, with the stake held out in front of her. Blinded by her rage, she'd failed to remember that he was a vampire hunter, and a skilled one at that. He caught both her arms _and_ managed to snatch the stake from her.

"Don't be too angry with me, Elena. I've spent my whole life hunting vampires; it's only my _job_ to kill every one that gets in my way. You understand that, don't you?"

"No," Elena replied in a low voice, "I don't."

"Well then, let me just _show_ you what I mean."

Vaughn drove the stake so deep into her back that it cut through her chest, puncturing her heart. Elena felt the walls closing in and her breath receding. The last thing she saw before she closed her eyes was Damon, and he was running towards her.

**_One week later_**

Stefan leaned against the large tree across the Salvatore boarding house. He hadn't been back since Elena made it clear she didn't want to have anything to do with him a week ago, and he wasn't dumb enough to face his brother after what he'd gone through with Elena. He hadn't planned to stay then, and he wasn't planning to stay now.

Because unbeknownst to him then, Vaughn had arrived in Mystic Falls just minutes after he'd left and killed both his brother _and_ Elena without so much as blinking. But he'd lost more than just them. His other friends – Caroline, Jeremy and Matt – abandoned him after finding out the truth about what he did to the cure. And so now he was completely and utterly alone, which he knew was exactly what he deserved.

Wherever his brother was, Stefan hoped he found his peace. And despite everything, he hoped he found his peace with Elena. As his own grief consumed him, he heard a whoosh behind him and groaned.

"I thought you were going to leave me alone."

Katherine sidled up to him. "Guess it's harder than I thought."

Stefan sighed. "Why are you here, Katherine? Actually no, scratch that. Why did you even come back on that wedding day and kidnap me? What were you trying to prove?"

"Nothing! I was telling you the truth before. I'm tired of running, especially now that Klaus is out of the picture. I came back for you because I loved you, Stefan. I _still_ love you even after all this time. I know you don't believe me, but you're the only one I ever really loved."

Stefan eyed her warily. He didn't know if she was telling the truth or not, but he didn't really want to find out. If they were going to play the confession game, well, he had a confession of his own.

"I was never going to take the cure," he blurted. "I never actually thought about it, but even if Elena wasn't in the picture… I don't think I would've ever taken the cure. Sure, being a vampire is a pain, but I enjoy it more than I despise it."

Katherine raised her eyebrows. She hadn't expected him to say that at all. "At least we have _something_ in common."

"But none of that means anything to me anymore. I don't have anyone. I've lost everyone I ever cared about."

"You haven't lost me." Katherine placed a hand on his shoulder. "And I know that you don't actually _care_ about me, but…"

Stefan scoffed at her. "You do know that you are literally the most annoying person on the face of the earth, right?"

Katherine grinned. "I know. And the worst part is, I'm not going _anywhere_."

She pulled something out from her jacket pocket. It was small and it glinted under the sunlight. When Stefan took a closer look, he saw that it was the ring she'd thrown off the mountain in Switzerland. More specifically, the ring that he'd slipped on her finger at the wedding when he'd thought that she was Elena.

"I went back to search for this after you passed out in the inn. I looked for yours, too, but I couldn't find it. I just thought it'd be a waste to leave something as pretty as this out there, and if you want it back then fine–"

"Keep it." Stefan produced something similar from his own pocket; it was his own ring. "This is why you couldn't find mine."

A surprised look came over Katherine's face. "But how…"

"I looked for it as soon as I left Switzerland. Turns out that even when you _weren't_ with me, I still found myself thinking about you." He sighed. "I guess it's not that you make me weak, Katherine. It's just that even after all this time, you still happen to be my weakness."

Katherine slipped the ring on her finger. "What a coincidence! The ring matches my daylight bracelet."

"You know, Vaughn will still come after us."

"Then we'll run." She seized his hand and held on it tight. He didn't let go. "Come on, let's get out of here. I don't know about you, but I think this place is _so_ last century."

Stefan smiled for the first time that week. "You lead the way."

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Everything around her looked exactly the same, only it felt so much like a dream. If Elena didn't know any better, she was in what Bonnie called the Other Side. She was still crouched on the ground where Vaughn stabbed her. She wasn't able to move before, but now she felt she could get up and walk… _through_ everything.

When she walked to the front door of the Salvatore boarding house, she noticed Damon watching her from inside with a huge smile spread across his face. She could only wonder what he was so happy about. As she approached him, he held out his arms to embrace her. She looked at him, puzzled. What was he _doing_? He of all people knew that they couldn't interact like they did in the living world.

"Damon, we can't…"

"Just get in here, Elena."

Elena gave in to him and hugged him back. It wasn't until seconds later that she realised they were touching and she could actually _feel_ him. She buried her head in his chest. If this _was_ a dream, she never wanted it to end.

"How is this possible? Is… is this a dream?"

"Do you wish it is?"

Elena felt tears pricking her eyes. "No, of course not. I want this to be real."

"Then look," Damon said, pointing to Bonnie, whom Elena just realised was in the room. Her eyes were closed and she was murmuring a spell under her breath. She couldn't see or hear them, Elena knew that, but someone sitting next to her waved right at her.

Elena felt her breath catch in her throat. It was Jeremy. She'd completely forgotten about her brother's special ability, and she couldn't be happier to know that they would still be able to communicate.

"Oh," Elena breathed. "What's she doing?"

"She's making this…" Damon touched the palm of his hand with hers, "…possible." Then, he wrapped his arms around her waist. "She's making sure I live up to my promise to you."

"What promise?"

"That I will never leave you." With one finger, Damon lifted her chin up so their lips were only inches apart. "And I won't."

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**Again, thank you SO much for taking the time to read this story ****_and_**** review it, I really appreciate it! **


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